The last 2 weeks of April. Where has this year gone already?!

Firstly, to see my photo album: click here
It has been updated.

Also, I put lots of effort into that thing, as well as into this thing here- can you people please comment! I love reading the comments. Makes me feel important, and then I know people are actually reading this....ok.

I forgot to mention in the last blog something that I found really amazing- that during Pesach here, everything was made kosher for pesach! As in, McDonalds had completely kosher for Pesach hamburgers, and shwarma was sold everywhere in a matza roll thing... It was all very bizarre.

During Pesach, there was a bomb in Tel Aviv at the old central stn. I was on the bus at the time driving right past it so I heard it go off. At first I thought it was a road accident of some sort, but then I sensed a lot of commotion on the bus with people moving over to my side of the bus to look out the window and see what was happening, and we could see some smoke coming from the markets area. The suicide bomber detonated outside a felaffel shop which was not selling kosher for pesach stuff- so it was pretty packed. Instantly people got on their mobile phones to call people. I heard the word 'pegooah' (bomb) being frantically utterred, then the next thing we know, 100's of police cars and ambulances and fire trucks were zooming past and the road was closed off and sirens were wailing and we're not moving anywhere in traffic, and the driver turned the radio up so we could listen to the news. I called my boss to say I would be late and he said he also heard it go off from our work, and he could see out the window all the traffic jams... it was nice that he was so concerned about me and told me not to worry and asked if I was ok... which I was.. but he knows that I'm new here, and most Israelis are no longer sensitised to this kind of thing, so he was just trying to look out for me and check . In fact, for example, the guy sitting next to me on the bus just continued reading his book throughout the whole ordeal. Other people decided to get off the bus and go check out what was happening....

There's a big push for blood donation here. Unfortunately (or fortunately for me?) AB positive is just not in high demand at all, so I didn't feel guilty about not giving any that day (There were mobile units you could go into everywhere).

Anyway, after Pesach, as I mentioned we would do in my last blog, Eli and I took a little vacation down to Eilat. Yay!!!
Eilat is about a 4hr bus ride south from Tel Aviv and you drive through the beautiful Negev (desert). Eli pointed out army bases and shooting ranges to me and a big de-salinating plant (where water is taken from the Red Sea and the salt taken out of it- Israel were apparently the brains behind this kind of ingenious technology- I don't understand why droughts pose such a huge problem still if there is such excellent technology which can combat this? There is so much sea water to draw from. No?) Anyway, Eli also educated me about the controversial massive fishing farm which we passed in the middle of the desert, which is owned by a big Japanese company. (Lena, so much of the fish you're eating there probably comes from Israel!) We also got to see the sun set over the desert mountains (if I didn't add in desert there you may have thought the mountains were green, but they are in fact a dry redish-orangey-brownish colour and they seem to be everywhere you turn. Like this.)

Eilat is situated on the Red Sea and the Red Sea is considered to be possibly the world's 2nd best place for snorkelling (alongside the Great Barrier Reef? Is that what you said Alex?). So Eli and I did some amazing snorekelling. Eli had never really been snorkelling before (apart from the time we went together in Sinai 2 years ago, and Eli stepped on a spiky sea urchin and was bleeding all over the place so we didn't last very long), and I had forgotten about this, however this became apparent when I detected an abnormal amount of excitment from him, especially when he would make unusual comments such as: "oh my god! I could actually see fish! Like, we were just swimming with them. Just like that. With the fish. Lots of fish. Everywhere... actually inside the water. With us!" etc etc... It was quite exciting though, I must admit, because I had never seen such a colourful coral reef like that before either- with big colourful fish and so many of them, and in such crystal clear water. Everything was just teeming with life. We even saw a couple of cea cucumbers. Eli was convinced they were poo. It was a strange experience also to be snorkelling on top of people who were scuba diving below us. Their bubbles kept tickling me as I swam over them. :-)

Basically, we lazed around the water all day. (exhibit a) under our beach umbrella (an excellent investment! Thank you Sarah) Eli read alot of Ibsen. Don't ask...

At night we slept in our tent right by the water. It was beautiful. Only thing was, we couldn't sleep past 8am because it got hot, DAMN hot. About 36 degrees. So we swam some more...

On the way back, whilst driving in the bus along a deserted lonely road, we passed by 2 bedouins on camels who were riding along the side of the road. They had big Israeli flags. They waved to us in the bus and I wondered to myself, where they could possibly be heading to?

Speaking of Israeli flags, it's Yom Ha'atsmaut this week (Independence Day) and one would have to be blind if they weren't aware of it. In fact, blind wouldn't be enough- you'd have to be deaf too. Israeli flags are literally everywhere; hanging off balconies (and Tel Aviv is the city of balconies, everyone seems to have one- except us), they're hanging off every telegraph pole, criss-crossing streets, hanging down the sides of buildings, and off car aerials... It's patriotism overkill, but still kinda nice at the same time. There's a stand selling flags right next to my place, and all day they have Israeli folk music blaring from loud speakers. I don't understand why I keep seeing so many American flags around as well? That lone Turkey flag in the centre of that pic is a bit of a mystery too. I think it's just there to be politically correct. But it is an interesting photo isn't it?

Oh yeah! Of course! I forgot to put in a funny story about Eli (most of my funny stories seem to revolve around Eli, funny that..) So this one takes place at the Tel Aviv central bus station on the day that we were leaving to go to Eilat. Eli had the backpack with all our clothes and everything inside it, and he got to the entrance where security guards have to check everyone's bags. Usually Eli is exempt from this because he flashes some army card, but this time, because of the aforementioned bomb that week, there was heightened security and they had all the big tough guys out. So Eli told the guard he'll open the bag but he asked for him to please not touch any of the clothes inside because they're all clean, so he will pick them up and move them for him to see... So when Eli opens the bag, what does the guard do? He automatically puts his hand inside to see what's inside. So Eli snaps and says he doesn't want him touching the clothes and underpants and other private things because his hands "are dirty". Well, the guard was Ethiopian, and this didn't go down too well. So Eli tries to fix up what he says, and explains that it's not because he's black or anything like that, he just doesnt like people touching his clean clothes. So the guard yells for his big boss to come out and says Eli is a problem and he won't let the guard look thru his bag, and also that Eli had called him black and said he was dirty. The guard says Ok Righto (or the Hebrew equivalent)-and tells Eli to turn around and leave. So Eli then tries to sort things out the Eli way and says "Listen, I love black people" and the boss can't believe what Eli has just said, so Eli says that he doesn't mind having his bag checked by anyone, but he wouldn't like anyone to touch his or his girlfriend's clean underpants with dirty hands. The boss asks the guard "Did you check his bag or not? What happened?" And the guard said "He took a few things out, but I don't know about him, I think he's suspicious." So the boss let Eli in after giving him a caution. And that was that.

Other than that- right now in Israel there's a bit of a heat wave. It's 8:30pm and I am boiling. Summer is coming and things are happening here. Went to a Motorola music festival yesterday in Dizengoff. Streets were closed- there were different stages, like Russian and Israeli hip hop; break dancing areas, street theatre, South American Capoera, battle of the bands... Eli knew one of the boys in one of the high school battle of the bands, so we watched that competition and it was quite impressive. Funny to hear kids singing broken English lyrics with thick Israeli accents. Although i really shouldn't find that funny, you'd think I'd be used to that by now since I hear it all day. (Oh, by the way, I'm going to teach 2 VIP students soon who are actually big celebrities- and I'll be going to their place! Oooooooh!) Anyway, here I am wearing the sticker supporting that kid's band.
It was a fun day.
And tonight I'm going out with Shir. Yay! Go Go go
Love to all,
I'm signing off now
xxxx

'get your ass over to my paddy's passover'

First of all, chag sameach and happy easter to everyone! I can't remember who I did and who I didn't email this to already, but basically, it's worth checking out again anyway- so have a look at www.atomfilms.com/contentPlay/shockwave.jsp?id=matzah&preplay=1&ratingBar=off for a good chuckle. (You have to copy and paste the links into the address field because I still haven't worked out how to make these links hyperlinks, sorry!)
Also, check out http://au.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sarahknopman/my_photos
for the new 'A bit of Feb and March' album.

For first night Pesach, we went to one of Eli's Aunty's place for dinner up in the North. When we travel up North by the way, to visit Eli's family, it takes about 2 hours to get there. But on Pesach, the whole country is travelling places so it took about 3 and a half. The seder was good- extremely loud (I just can't get used to how loud a group of 12 Morroccans can get- it's insane!). We did a very abridged version of the haggadah reading, and basically got straight into the food after about 15 mins. I read in Hebrew for a bit and impressed everyone :-)

It's strange here, everyone gets Pesach presents from their employers- so I was pleasantly surprised to receive a big aromatherapy present from Wall Street (which included a big chunky mango candle and smaller candles and bath salts) plus a 250 shekel voucher for Golf- which is a designer label here for clothes and homeware. How cool is that? Yay!

Pesach is obviously very different to how I'm used to it back at home. First of all, being a Jewish country and all, everyone is basically on holidays right now, so many shops and businesses have closed down for the week. And everyone goes away. We spent the first 2 days in the North and we'll be going back there on Tuesday and Wednesday again to celebrate Maimoona with Eli's other side of the family. Maimoona is apparently a traditional Morroccan holiday which takes place on the last 2 days of Pesach. I think it involves just more eating, I'm not sure though exactly what to expect, but I'd say that's a safe guess. Then on Thursday and FRiday, Eli and I plan to go down to Eilat to snorkel. The weather is getting much hotter now. If Nitzan (Eli's cousin) and his pal come with us then they'll bring their jetskis and we'll be doing some of that as well. yay!!! Nitzan by the way, is Eli's cousin who is in a wheel chair. His best friend- who seriously goes with him everywhere- is Ido, who is permanently on crutches. The 2 of them are very funny together. Sometimes completely inappropriate. For example- we're all at a cafe and the waiter comes to serve us and mentions how he's so exhausted because he's been on his feet all day and he's complaining about how busy and tired he is. Nitzan will say "you've been on your feet all day? I haven't been on my feet for 10 years! Do you hear me complain?" And he and Ido will crack up laughing whilst the waiter turns bright red. They enjoy this sort of dark humour. The 2 of them have decided they've worked out a plan how they're going to save lots of money. They're going to India together. And they're going to rent out their places whilst they're gone. They've calculated that they actually save money by holidaying in India rather than living in Israel. Haha! What a brilliant plan!
When we were driving to the North in Nitzan's car, (and boy what an awesome car it is!) we wanted to stop off at a shop to buy a drink, and someone in front of us pulled into the disabled parking spot. This happens a lot in Israel and it drives Nitzan crazy (understandably) so he invarialy ends up parking on the sidewalk and puts a letter in the window to explain why he's parked there. So this time, he got out of the car rally fast and was going over to them in his wheel chair when they saw him and reversed out of there quick smart.

In other news, a couple of weeks ago I went along to a wedding which Eli was playing at. It was in Zichron Yaakov, which was about 1.5hrs bus drive from my work. It was a very nice and most unusual wedding. The bride was Israeli. Her mother and grandmother were Yemen, and her father was Portugese. She was marrying a Mexican guy who had converted to Judaism for her (reform)- and all his devout Chistian Mexican family were there as well as some of his friends from the States- where he had been living for the last 8 years or so. So under the Chuppa, it was one big balagan, with 2 rabbis and everything being translated from english to hebrew to portugese... then again for the speeches, everything was being translated into 3 languages. The father of the groom wore a big sombreo, and the mother wore sunglasses, and fro the opposite spectrum, the Yemen grandmother of the bride was wearing some traditional Yemen sack-looking garb. Then there was traditional Yemen dancing which was very entertaining- reminded me of something I saw in Ubud in Indonesia- where the dancers go into a trance. He was just sooo happy dancing!
Of course, need I say it? The food was superb. You know, I really love going to weddings to watch Eli play. I really feel like it's a night out for me. Always great entertainment, I cry at all the weddings, I eat great food, I dance...I speak to random people, it's brilliant! Lucky for me at this wedding I had lots of Aericans to chat to.
Yeffy is the band leader and singer. We went to visit him as well on Pesach. He lives in a moshav- like a village where everyone knows everyone. It's the complete opposite of city life there. Everything's so quiet and peaceful and full of nature.. people chew on grass and share cats.... that sort of thing. He's the one I spoke about previously who had 5 generations around the table. Well it happened again. I'm always so overwhelmed when we visit! It's so nice! Whilst we were there, one of the little kids got her head stuck in the stair railings. It was a big mission to get her out. Yeffy saved the day. He is extremely charming and nice and sweet that man, and he sings well and dances well too. (Ask Jord! :-) )He loves to tease Eli and dance with me, then pass me back to him as if- "now it's your turn, show us what you can do" :-) Eli in fact said to me after that wedding, 'maybe we should start ballroom dancing or salsa dancing classes'. Can you believe it? It was actually his suggestion, not mine! I can't believe it! So we're looking into it. now.. one of my students at WS runs a salsa dancing school... I need to speak with him.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, speaking about nature- on election day- which was March 28- Eli and I took his mum, Eti, on a road trip up north to the Golan Heights, to a historical place called Gamla. It was fascinating! See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamla
Along the way we picked up a hitchhiking soldier who was in the same unit as Eli used to be in the army. It's just the done thing here. At Gamla, we went on a trek and hiked for a few hours.
It's eagle season and we saw lots of eagles. In fact, through one kind man's binoculars, we even got to see some scavenging on a dead cow! We also saw Israel's tallest waterfall. Yay. Then we continued on our merry way to Tierius to eat fish from the Kineret. It was very nice. All in all it was a lovely day.

In conclusion, Eli and I have discovered a cheap pool place right next to our house- finally! Israel has a drastic shortage of pool/snooker bars. So we've picked up a new hobby, alongide basketball and jogging and playing with kittens and going to our corner bar to watch the basketball finals on the tv- it's the first time in my life I've ever lived without a tv. Even when I was backpacking with Lena around the world for 8 months, we kept catching TV in hostels here and there... but here I feel I never watch anything! Just 2 German channels. And that keeps me occupied.

Once again, happy holidays to everyone, and I hope you are all well- I will catch up with the personal emails very soon, I'm sorry about the delayed response! Take care y'all xxxxxxx

What's been going down in Florentin

Gees Louise I have a lot to catch up on. I've been back in Israel for 2 weeks. During these 2 weeks I've done a surprising lot, all whilst managing to work pretty much every day. First of all, some photos are beginning to trickle in of my brother's wedding. Here's one nice one (thanks Michael) and I'll be posting up more to come in my album very soon.
By the way, as I write this now, Eli is baking his famous hamentashen. He made them for Purim and it seems that even by Israeli standards, his hamentashen are... "ma-shehoo ma-shehoo" ('something something'- which means: something special. Indeed, Hebrew is a language remarkably short in vocab). So even though the festival of Purim's over, Eli's still soldiering on and keeping the Purim spirit alive (and boy, was that holiday taken seriously here! It's the equivalent of what I would imagine Halloween to be like in the States- literally everyone got dressed up and went out to parties and went crazy. My bus driver that day was dressed as a school girl -which was a little disturbing to say the least. I went to work dressed as a punk.)
So anyway, as I mentioned in my last blog, our street (or at least the part of street directly outside our house) is now finally finished with all the constuction which was going on there for the past 3 months. We have what may possibly be the nicest street in all of Tel Aviv now! It's so new and nice! With fresh tarmac, newly paved sidewalks, painted road markings which aren't faded, new trees, benches, lights...
This picture was taken one day before the street re-opened. It took precisely one day for the oil stains to come back and two days for someone to knock over one of the trees. All the double parking and the tooting and the road rage which follows suit, were almost instantaneous with the opening. Gotta love Israeli drivers. Look, you really have to try understand my excitement here. Those that visited me will know what I'm talking about. We basically had a huge mud/sand/dirt swamp/ditch thing happening from our door step to the other side of the street. It was crazy. As Eli said, although it may or may not have been a little politically incorrect, our home was the next closest thing we would get to living in the Gaza.

Anyway, down our street, as some of you may recall, live our beloved friends Tzvika and Pini- more commonly referred to as the guys who own(ed) Churchhill and famously managed to lose him and then have him miraculously returned safe and sound and just as crazy and hyperactive a puppy as ever again. So, Eli and I were hanging out with Pini at an open garage studio party
(basically, near our place, there are a whole string of garages or what look more like old shacks, where some have been converted into warehouses or craftsmens' workshops or funky bars or music studios, etc..- so a few of them got together one night and decided to hold an open air party where lots of musicians collaborated together to put on a hodge-podge night of all kinds of entertainment, with all sorts of cool and random items for sale such as furniture and artworks and jewellery, and there were firecrackers, and cheap beer and free food... have I mentioned that I love my neighbourhood?) Well anyway, Pini happens to mention that Churchhill was driving him crazy so one day, when I was in Australia in fact, they just got rid of him once and for all (poor dog) and passed him onto their friends (who were always like his co-owners anyway). Instead, their neighbour was moving houses and offerred them his cat. So they adopted "Dolly", a very cool and beautiful black cat. I really like black cats. Has something to do with Snuggle Puss and Chester, 2 black (or almost black) cats very dear to my heart from my childhood. So anyway, Pini then says that one day he came home and discovered 5 tiny furry things making high-pitched squeeking noises from inside his cupboard. Can you believe it? Both these doofuses hadn't even realised Dolly was preggas! So they basically traded in one mad puppy for 6 cats! I went over to see the new arrivals and, needless to say, fell in love immediately. 5 kittens of age 2 weeks is hands down just about the cutest thing I've ever seen in my entire life! Especially when they all suckled from Dolly at the same time and she was laying all stretched out and trying to lick their little heads at the same time. Wow. At the moment, they're all as one happy family inside a box in Pini's bedroom. And he seems content to keep them all. But that's bound to change soon. I'm dying to have one of my own, but Eli won't allow it. :( Look, one of them fits inside just one of my hands! AAAAAWWWWWWW....

In other news, Ian, my friend from school who has been living & studying in Jerusalem for a couple of years, came to visit us in Florentin. That was cool. We went out to our favourite hummus bar in town- literally a basic kind of restaurant which sells only hummus, salad and pita. (Here, Eli gives Ian a lesson on how to best scrape the hummus onto the Pita- 'Israeli style', by showing him how it's done.) Ian stayed over the night, and the next day we hung out in toy shops, going nuts, and also looking for a suit, and checking out the arts markets. Twas excellent!

In other news yet again, there was a 12m whale shark which got stuck in fishermens' nets off Haifa! It unfortunately died. But 12 metres!!! An Haifa??! What the hell was it doing here in the middle east? And on the same day mysteriously, a whale calf got washed up on the shore in Haifa as well. What the hell was it thinking? As my cousin Michael so aptly commented, everyone wants a piece of Israel.

Anyway, I'm waking up early to go for a jog tomorrow. I'm back into it again, yay! At long last. I jog past the Carmel markets to the beach and run along the promenade and back again in about 45 mins. Yay! I do have more to write, but I think I've packed a suffiecient amount of stories and pics into one blog. I'll update the rest asap. Promise. :-) Layla Tov xxx